


Eye for an Eye

by TheNovelNightingale



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Depression, Disfigurement, Drabbles, Drama, Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, Friendship, Gen, I critted three times, Major Character Injury, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Post-War, Xavier makes the worst fucking roles, mid campaign drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:33:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26345662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNovelNightingale/pseuds/TheNovelNightingale
Summary: Drabbles from the Harry Potter Universe D&D campaign I am currently in.Dossier: Xavier Wright is a Muggle born wizard from a military family. Growing up he’s used to moving from place to place and not having friends, at least not for long. He is a Gryffindor, and once he graduates from Hogwarts his plan was to enlist in the Muggle British Air Force and serve his country.In the Campaign he is accompanied by two fellow students: Emerson Zander Lee (Slytherin) and Eleri Lovelace (Ravenclaw) who are pulled away from their last year of studies to help the Ministry in a case following a malicious plot brewing in the muggle world.
Kudos: 1





	Eye for an Eye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LiteralPantry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiteralPantry/gifts), [Turianrock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turianrock/gifts).



> Xavier Wright is probably the unluckiest son of a bitch i've ever played. No lie, i’ve tried several sets of dice but NEVER in my LIFE have I rolled so garbage for someone. He’s critted more times than I can count. And all he wants to do is help and be cool :(

It was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab. 

But things haven’t gone his way in a long time. He considered himself a solid, even lucky young man for most of his life. He worked hard and it paid off. Yes he could keep himself company when his parents are working. Yes he can introduce himself again and again and again to dozens of new faces every other year. Yes he can do all his homework assignments for the educational system of the muggle world as well as the frighteningly overwhelming knowledge in a world of magic and fantasy. 

His hard work needed to be put to the test, and Xavier would say things went very well and on schedule. 

_ “So your son’s in the hospital…”  _

When he was a kid one of his favorite things to do when being introduced to their new town was go to the park and climb the trees. Always being the new kid meant always being the outcast, but he could rely on himself to be ok like the trees rely on the sunlight to live. 

One day he slipped, and while falling he held his hands outstretched, and just for a second he was floating. It stopped just as quickly and he broke his arm, but in that split second he realized how badly he wanted to fly. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about it: him a pilot. His dad was in the Army, but it shouldn’t matter, he was going to serve and make his family, and country proud. Of both worlds even. 

_ “He’s ok but you should probably get here…”  _

The rest of that summer Xavier stayed inside to heal, unaffected by the isolation, but some more good came out of it besides his new ambition. His mother came home one day with a small box and inside- a little hedgehog. That day he got his first friend who he could tell secrets to, and about the flying he almost did. 

Magic it was, but there was no way his parents would ever believe him. 

_ “Where is my son!?” _

Xavier could almost feel the breaks of his bones like he fell out of the tree all over again, but the pain was different, spreading, crawling up his arms and sitting on his face. White noise began to ring as he opened his eyes- well one eye. He was in a bed, staring at the bare ceiling in a bright lit room smelling of disinfectant and rubber. Something sticky was taped over half of his face. The visions of the many parks of his childhood burned away in ash. 

Then it all came back to him. 

The mission. 

They just needed to get the footage from the journalist. All they had to do was get her to back down. But Xavier didn’t want to hurt her, she was paranoid enough, Eleri was trying enough and looking calm enough about planting the idea into her head that its not wizards caught on camera but aliens. 

Aliens, that was the best thing they could think of. 

It would have worked too if Xavier could fucking commit to it. Being of a military upbringing made him a great patriot but a horrible liar. Not that he’s ever tried, Xavier refused to lie. 

So the journalist locked onto him like a missile. 

It wasn’t enough to call his bluff, it wasn’t enough to consider security to remove him, but the bitch had a gun in her office- illegally- he would add. 

And the paranoid bitch loaded it wrong. 

Xavier knew enough about guns that facing down that barrel was more terrifying than anything he’s seen the past few years attending a school of wands and potions and dark arts. He’s faced his worst fear in the form of a bogart and in reality, but he knew he was in trouble when she took off the safety and fired because the damn gun exploded. 

He remembers the pain- the sharp shrapnel that impaled him with a sickening squelch. The blood poured like a broken barrel of ale. Through his fingers as he held his wound together, fueled by adrenaline and shock to remain standing. It was either Eleri or Emerson who took care of her, he isn’t sure, he remembers hobbling over to her computer and going to work with one hand alone. Find the files and get out, that’s all he could focus on. Not the searing pain reaching to his brain or the mess it was making over his clothes, and the computer, and the desk and floor. 

He got the footage, the rest was blackness. Now as he woke, the voices he had been hearing weren’t his imagination, because he couldn’t imagine anything. He only remembered and was cursed to be hyper aware. 

Eleri and Emerson were in the hospital room, and the looks on their faces made him want to yell. He was fine. He was alive. Just a small injury- 

He blinked his one eye, the puzzle pieces coming together just as his father took a step closer. The look on his face was something that Xavier never ever wanted to see. 

“Give me a mirror.” 

“Are you sure that’s-” They were trying to spare him, but Xavier already knew he just needed to see it. 

“Mirror.” He bit out, trying to hide his pain with aggression. They must be at a wizard hospital, they must be, and if he was taped up that meant- 

His father pulled out a small compact mirror and slowly handed it to him. Xavier snatched it and lifted it to his face. 

His left eye was hidden beneath a pile of gauze and tape, never to see the light again. All he could hear was his younger self crying out excitedly to his father that he was going to be a pilot. 

They couldn’t save his fucking eye. 

“It’s going to be okay,” His father told him once Eleri and Emerson excused themselves from the now private discussion. “There’s other options in the military.” Xavier stared at his hands, focusing on his fingers as they clenched and unclenched in rhythm, anything to not notice the visible wince every time his father saw the damage. “Let me pull you out of this,” His father said, inferring the mission Xavier was on on behalf of the entire Ministry, because they were so fucking incompetent they needed to draft children to do their dirty work. Three young adults asked ‘politely’ to stop mass terrorists from killing more people. 

And Xavier stepped forward and said okay because he’s a fucking idiot. 

“I have to keep going.” He told his father in the most unconvincing voice. “We are the only ones who can.” 

The shared car ride with his parents and his friends (a title he has still been getting used to) was awkward to say the least, but Xavier was unbothered by the rambling. He stared out the window with half a vision, feeling numb to the core. 

The assurance, the hopes, the pats on the shoulder were nothing but reminders that he was a failure. He didn’t hug his father back at the hospital, and he knew they never hugged. When his mother slipped and used her nickname for him in front of his friends he made no grimace. And when his parents insisted on walking him to his room of the luxury hotel they now lived in, he said nothing, and went inside to his room and locked the door behind him. 

“I love you,” he could hear his mother say behind the door with as much affection as a romcom before floating away with her footsteps. It was only one set though, because his father had lingered a moment longer. 

“I love you too.” And he too left. 

He didn’t sleep. 

He didn’t eat. 

He didn’t even change. 

He just sat on the edge of the bed for the rest of the night, only moving to take his hedgehog out of his cage to sit on his lap. 

He always could understand. 

  
  


It broke apart after that. 

“You're the strongest motherfucker on the team. We can't obviously reverse and change what happened but we will be here every step of the way and well see this through.” His tall lanky partner, Emerson, wasn’t afraid to say what was on his mind. Even the suggestion of getting back to work on solving their monstrous mystery set him off on the defensive. “You need a day to be you and relax.” He meant well, he always did, but today well...

Xavier was having none of it today. “No.” No humor, no beating around the bush. They didn’t have time for that. He went for the door, to get out to do something, anything, to at least feel like he tried so no one else had to die-

Emerson stepped up faster, blocking the door with his body. 

“Get out of my way Emerson.” 

And he wouldn’t because Emerson was a bastard. A young man expelled from Hogwarts more than anyone else, always able to come back, always being so forward but still like a damn weed Xavier couldn’t bear to get rid of. 

Unable to hold it in anymore, the frustration leapt from him with a fist to the nearby wall, denting the material under his might. Xavier let out a shout, trying to keep himself under control. Control that was slipping away with every second. He took several deep strangled breaths.

“I’m not letting you.”

Xavier straightened and gave Emerson his most serious warning of a glare, “Don't make me hurt you Emerson.” he would take no joy in doing so, but all he wanted was to exit the room. Xavier wasn’t beneath fighting Emerson either, they had already done so in the hallways of Hogwarts as a distraction. 

But the emphasis was distraction. 

Emerson, bratty Emerson, just always had to defy him. “I dont fucking care.” He had guts, or he was stupid and liked to cause trouble. 

Xavier wasn’t even able to twitch forward for a move, unsure of even what he was going to do. Punch him? Try and throw him out of the way? Use magic against him? Possability fired around in his brain for agonizing time. He’s never been in a situation where he had no control, or when he had no control no clear path to take except the drastic. Until now violence was a last resort. His last resorts were getting more and more shallow. 

Then, out of the corner of his only remaining eye, quiet Eleri made a move with her hand, wand within, and he reacted. 

Just as  _ Immobius _ left her lips he flicked his wand to counter, and under pressure, rebound it. 

The spells shattered together in the air between them, but they both remained standing. 

Her eyes widened with the realization of what he tried to do, and he was not quick enough for her rebuttal. 

“ _ Stupify _ !” She was always so fast; Eleri was an excellent asset to the team, how he thought he could dodge this was beyond him. A force knocked into his chest like a truck, lifting him off his feet to slam into the wall and knocking him out instantly. 

Eleri stood victorious against Emerson’s dismay. 

“Holy shit! What the Fuck Eleri!” 

“He deserved it.” Eleri had little remorse for her actions, wiping some dust from the skirmish off her dress sleeve. 

Emerson bent over his friend's body. “Just help me get him into bed.” 

  
  


Hours pass. It is the afternoon when he awakens again. And when he sits up in his new baggy clothing he sees his so called friends sitting by the door, watching him. With snacks. The argument picked up from there.

  
  


“You know what? Why don’t we let him leave? He can go off and die on his own.” Eleri stood to her feet to exit the now suffocating energy in the space. Emerson slammed his hand against the door to keep it shut. Funny how doors held back anyone, even wizards and witches. 

“No we are not letting him!” 

They argued back and forth over an object straining from their strength. Xavier stared at them with rage and disbelief. The left side of his head throbbed, his hands clenched at his sides. All the time they were wasting arguing about his safety? Ridiculous. Stupid. When was he ever safe, when were any of them ever safe?

So long as the terrorists remained amuck out there, no one was safe, and people would die each second they wasted. 

One eye or not, a failure or not, he would not rest until the people were safe again, including the only two people he could call friends. 

Even if they pushed his buttons, even if they casted spells against him to force him to rest, he would not let them die, and he would not let them stand in his way against what was right. 

His wand was on the edge of the bed just in reach, he grabbed it without being noticed. 

Without a single sound he flicked his wand and cast  _ Accio _ . 

Eleri’s arm jerked to the side, her bracelet of silver flying off her wrist easily, flying through the air with glints of reflective light. 

The two turned to see him just as his outstretched hand caught the jewelry with all of their info, all of their files of the case sitting in a room within the shrunken briefcase charm- right before he vanished into thin air, apparating miles and miles away. 

Eleri and Emerson stared in disbelief at the empty placeholder of their third party member, and swore. 


End file.
